Curt Tofteland to Speak at ONU

Oct 6, 2006

Curt Tofteland, actor, director and workshop coordinator, will be speaking on “Shakespeare Behind Bars: Building Community with the Incarcerated” at the Ohio Northern University Freed Center on Monday, Oct.16 at 8 p.m.

Tofteland is the founder and artistic director of “Shakespeare Behind Bars,” the prison production company made up of inmates from the Luther Luckett Male Correctional Complex in Kentucky. His Shakespeare prison program is the subject of the Philomath Films documentary “Shakespeare Behind Bars” that won acclaim at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

In addition to “Shakespeare Behind Bars,” Tofteland is the producing artistic director of the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. He has written eight plays for young audiences that have been professionally produced, and also has his own one-man show, “Shakespeare’s Clownes: A Foole’s Guide to Shakespeare,” which he tours annually. Tofteland also works with “Will on Wheels,” Kentucky Shakespeare’s Educational Outreach Program that takes members of the theatre company into schools.

Tickets are $3 and can be purchased at the Freed Center Box Office at (419) 772-1900. The event is sponsored by the ONU Cultural Affairs & Special Events Committee and the ONU Office of Multicultural Affairs.